NEVER let it be said that the US intelligence agencies are asleep at the wheel. According to US News and World Report, one day in April, the government鈥檚 daily 鈥渢hreat matrix鈥� identified a new hazard, one Don Emilio Fulci, a supposedly evil and reclusive millionaire. A tip-off had warned them that Fulci was planning to mount chemical attacks in London and Washington, so the FBI was duly briefed, and word went to the White House.
Then an intrigued White House aide went Googling 鈥� and identified Fulci as the head of a crime syndicate in the video game Headhunter. Fortunately the all-clear came before attack orders went out. It all makes Feedback wonder on which day in April it all happened.
THE London listings magazine Time Out joins a long list of newspapers and periodicals that are impressed by a device called Aqua Detox, which claims to give 鈥渂io-energetic stimulation for self detoxification鈥�.
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The Aqua Detox unit is a bowl filled with water with an electrode attached. When you immerse your feet in it 鈥渟omething special happens鈥�, a leaflet promoting the device tells us. 鈥淭he unit creates an electrolytic flow (a flow of electrons) which imparts to the water a bio-energetic field which corresponds to that of the person using the apparatus. This allows a gentle bio-energetic resonance to travel through the body. The body now starts to rebalance.鈥�
This already sounds pretty amazing. But Time Out has identified further virtues. 鈥淭he electrode creates electromagnetic waves that encourage the body to excrete toxins,鈥� the magazine鈥檚 correspondent reported on 31 March after trying the device. And indeed, after a while 鈥渢he water started to turn a dull rust colour鈥� I hadn鈥檛 realised my toxins were so orange鈥�.
Time Out is not alone in its enthusiasm. The Wellsprings Holistic Clinic offers treatment with this gadget, and the clinic鈥檚 website shows 鈥渂efore鈥� and 鈥渁fter鈥� pictures. You can see for yourself at that in the latter the water appears impressively brown. The website doesn鈥檛 explain what gives rise to this coloration, but it does point out elsewhere that 鈥渆ach foot has over 2000 pores through which toxins are excreted鈥�.
And all this for only 拢995 for the 鈥渃ompact鈥� Aqua Detox model, or 拢1095 for the 鈥渟plit-level model鈥�.
But Feedback is puzzled. Some sceptical chemists have suggested to us that you can get water to change colour pretty much like this using standard school-physics electrolysis, given the right electrodes and a handful of AA batteries. And that鈥檚 with or without feet in the water 鈥� although salt from sweaty feet should help speed up the reaction.
Feedback is shocked that anyone could be so cynical, but still wonders why the water turns that murky colour. Is it because of toxins that have been excreted from the feet, as Time Out believes? Perhaps readers can supply an explanation. Or perhaps the makers of Aqua Detox themselves can tell us.
But be warned, dear readers, whatever you do, don鈥檛 try anything yourselves involving water, electricity and your body without expert supervision.
YET another game to play with Google. Martin Tweddle tells us that when he recently mistyped the word 鈥渞esult鈥� in a manuscript, he got 鈥渞esult鈥�. Thinking that this was rather a nice word, he typed it into Google to see what would happen 鈥� and was surprised to get a large number of hits, such as 鈥淏oom in day care industry the reslut of many social changes鈥� and 鈥淔inal reslut of men鈥檚 singles鈥�.
Intrigued, Feedback then tried typing in a spelling error we often make, 鈥渦nviersity鈥� 鈥� and, yes, it turns out there are no fewer than 29,800 unviersities out there, including Columbia Unviersity, the Unviersity of Auckland and the Unviersity of Denver.
Feedback has at times poked fun at the vagaries of spellcheckers. But perhaps people who post pages on the web should be reminded that spellcheckers do in fact have their uses.
WAS this conscious or unconscious? James Reinhardt tells us of the excitement of the manager of a South African manufacturing company that has launched a new design of plough that apparently improves the fertilisation process of plants in the soil it turns over. According to the Cape Argus newspaper, he announced: 鈥淲e are proud to be part of a ground-breaking initiative.鈥�
FINALLY, they didn鈥檛 just provide a website, they were responsible for the whole thing. As Allyn Sayers was impressed to discover, in a note at the bottom of the San Francisco Exploratorium鈥檚 home page of : 鈥淭ransit of Venus is made possible through the generosity of the Jim Clark Endowment for Internet Education and the McBean Family Foundation.鈥�
The informative label on the pair of Odeon shoes that Joan Fox bought told her they were made of: 鈥淯pper: other materials. Lining & sock: other materials. Sole: other materials鈥�